What kinds of Graduate schools do I match up to?

Graduate School
1

<p>I am currently a senior Electrical Computer Engineering major at Carnegie Mellon University. After graduation, I will be joining a company as a research engineer in machine learning. Although I do enjoy the work at this company (I interned there for 3 months last summer), graduate school has always been my ultimate goal. My plan is to apply for fellowships (NSC, DoD, etc...) and then to graduate schools either next fall or fall 2 years from now while I am working at this company. One problem is that I really have no idea how I stack up to compared to other candidates. From what I have seen here, many people have like 4+ years worth of research.</p>

<p>Some current stats:</p>

<p>General stats:
University: Carnegie Mellon University
Major: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Interests: DSP, digital communications, and machine learning are the big areas
GPA: 4.0/4.0
Class: Senior</p>

<p>Research Experience:
Junior year:
I worked with a graduate student and a professor on a research project on image filtering. This project was successful, since we were able to publish a paper for IEEE - ICIP 2011. I went to Belgium a few months ago to present this paper at the conference (power point presentation, not poster presentation)</p>

<p>Senior year:
I just recently started a project with another professor on automatic classification of music. Since the project is in its early stages, I don't know how far it will go but I am hoping it will be as successful as my previous project.</p>

<p>After graduation:
I will be working with a start-up company founded by a group of Carnegie Mellon entrepreneurs as a research engineer in machine learning. Specifically, I will be implementing algorithms described in papers to automate various tasks and possibly improve on them.</p>

<p>Other:
I have served as a teaching assistant for various classes for 5 semesters out of 7 I have been at CMU. Responsibilities include: grading, serving as a lab assistant, holding office hours, and in a few cases, taking over lecture in the professor's absence.</p>

<p>Letters of recommendation:
I plan to get one from the professor I did my Junior project with and possibly one I do my senior project with depending on how that turns out. I will also get one from a professor that I had for 4 courses and served as a teaching assistant for 2. I predict that at least 1 of the recommendations will be very strong based on my professor's body language (Junior project).</p>

<p>GRE:
I have not taken them yet, but here are my SAT scores from around 4 years ago for reference: 800/570/650 (M/CR/W). I plan on taking them after graduation and before I start working, when I have spare time to prepare.</p>

<p>Statement of purpose:
I have not written this yet, but when I do, I will mainly talk about my research projects in academia and in the work setting. I will also talk about what I plan to do in the future in terms of research. From what I understand, the statement of purpose should only talk about research.</p>

<p>Do you have any other fellowships to recommend?
In your opinion, what kinds of universities (For Electrical Engineering) do I match up to?</p>

<p>I have been looking at:</p>

<p>MIT, Berkeley, UIUC, Caltech, Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, CMU, Northwestern, Columbia, Princeton, University of Southern California, Penn State, Case Western, Rutgers</p>

<p>but I will cut down the list to maybe 10 or so schools based on various factors such as personal fit etc...</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>Seems like a solid plan. </p>

<p>I’d say try to see if you can get another paper published while you are working at that company, based on your description it sounds like they do some theoretical work there. Even if you are a second author, it will really help you.</p>

3

<p>4+ years of research? Most people graduate in 4 years bro. Most top candidates have around 2 years of solid research. Your profile looks good for any school.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>

<p>Also, I forgot to mention that I intend to apply to mostly PhD programs.</p>

5

<p>Your profile seems really solid. Your best resource will really be talking with the professors you’ve worked with. They’ll probably also be able to steer you to programs that are strong in whichever subfield you’re most interested in.</p>

6

<p>Sorry to tag onto this thread, but I’m trying to get some responses. I’d really appreciate any feedback you guys have on my application chances. I’m applying to 18 programs for specialization in comparative politics/political economy. I know, 18 - but I’m terrified, so 18.</p>

<p>Here are the stats:
Graduated from Columbia 2009 - 3.65 overall, 3.92 major, major poli sci minor math. I graduated in 3 years (I took a year off to work full time in development in the former USSR during my junior year), and my GPA from my last year was a 3.98.
GRE: 800 Verbal, 790 Quant
LORs: 1 very well known professor who has done some awesome work in my field (but more of a practitioner - he’s my academic mentor), 1 up-and-coming poli sci professor (thesis advisor), and 1 from former employer in former USSR
Statement of purpose: I shopped it around and did like a million rewrites, and I feel pretty confident with it. In each one I mention at least 2 professors I’d like to work with in the department and why their work interests me.
I’ve got 2 years work experience after undergraduate, and I worked in microfinance in the former USSR and then in clean tech, focusing on developing markets (I wrote about how the first job immersed me in the political economy of my region of interest and the second job has exposed me to a new side of the energy trade, which will be a crucial component of my doctoral studies).
I presented at a pretty high-level conference my senior year, have lectured in Argentina, did an undergrad thesis based on original field research done with a fellowship grant, and was invited to present at some conferences in Asia.</p>

<p>Here are the schools:

  1. Stanford GSB Political Economics
  2. Harvard Political Economy and Government
  3. Columbia Poli Sci
  4. SIPA MIA
  5. SAIS MA
  6. Washington U Poli Sci
  7. Berkeley Poli Sci
  8. UCLA Poli Sci
  9. UCSD Poli Sci
  10. Brown Poli Sci
  11. Yale Poli Sci
  12. Oxford Development Studies (mphil)
  13. Cambridge (same)
  14. LSE (same)
  15. U Chicago Poli Sci
  16. Duke Poli Sci
  17. U Mich Ann Arbor Poli Sci
  18. NYU Politics</p>

<p>I know this is super long, but if anyone gets a chance to take a look I’d love some feedback.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

7

<p>Have you checked with your recommenders that they’re willing to submit 18 times? Might be worth getting some back ups if you’re applying to that many programs…</p>

8

<p>Also can’t see why you wouldn’t get into at least a few of those programs, your stats are good, I reckon UCSD is probably your safest but I don’t see why you wouldn’t get into some of the better ones as well.</p>

9

<p>Honestly, you need to cut down your list. That is way too many programs - a ton of money in app fees and I don’t think you’ve considered fit enough. Are there professors at all those schools in your interest area? If not, you should throw those schools out.</p>

10

<p>Thanks for the feedback - yes, I’ve actually looked into each of the programs and there are appropriate faculty and departmental strengths at each one. And yes, my recommenders are willing to submit 18 times (and have already submitted most of them). As far as app fees - that is undeniably a major problem, but the difference between 12 and 18 fees is not that huge, and I don’t know anyone applying this year for the most competitive programs that isn’t going over 10. </p>

<p>I’m using Washington, UCSD, LSE, and SIPA as my safety schools (Brown a bit, too) - I started with 14 schools but bumped it up to 18 because I realized my “safety schools” were extremely competitive. Obviously the schools I now count as my safeties are very competitive, but I’m hoping my stats and profile will get me in at most of them.</p>

<p>Any other feedback welcome. Thanks!</p>